The North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, DOCR, runs a Resident Lookup searched by a last name or its first letters, and states its limits on its face: only people currently incarcerated in a North Dakota correctional facility appear; a person sentenced to the department but held in an out of state facility does not, and a person held in a North Dakota facility under another state's sentence does not either. The department's home page pairs the lookup with public dashboards on its population, its prioritization plan and parole releases, and its central office at 3100 Railroad Avenue, P.O. Box 1898, Bismarck, ND 58502-1898 answers at (701) 328-6390.
A person held before trial or on a county sentence is in a county jail, found through the North Dakota county pages; a person on parole or probation is supervised from the department's 17 district offices, from Beulah to Williston, with supervision fees, restitution and court costs paid online through JPay. The department's visitation page explains where a search result begins: every man sentenced to the department arrives at the North Dakota State Penitentiary in Bismarck for about four weeks of orientation, after which the classification committee assigns a custody level, housing and programming and places him at the penitentiary, the James River Correctional Center in Jamestown or the Missouri River Correctional Center in Bismarck, and every woman goes through the same process at the Dakota Women's Correctional and Rehabilitation Center in New England.
- Search: the DOCR Resident Lookup by last name, for people now in a North Dakota facility only.
- Mail: since June 1, 2021, personal mail to the resident's name and number, care of Securus Digital Mail Center, North Dakota Department of Corrections, PO Box 21408, Tampa, FL 33622, scanned to the resident's player, with a legible return address, no more than 30 photos and ten non personal pages per envelope; legal mail, agency mail and visitation applications go to the facility.
- Money: never at a facility or by mail to it; only through JPay, by app, at JPay.com, by phone at 800-574-5729, in cash at MoneyGram with receive code 1304, or by money order with the deposit form to JPay, P.O. Box 822700, Pembroke Pines, FL 33082.
- Calls and visits: calls at 7.9 cents a minute to numbers on an approved telephone application, up to 20 social numbers, 15 minutes each, with two free five minute calls on arrival; visits for approved applicants within 20 hours a month, video visits scheduled 24 hours ahead at videovisitanywhere.com.
Written by SearchSystems.net from North Dakota's own systems: the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Resident Lookup, the department's home page, the department's Visitation page, the department's Correspondence page, the department's Sending Money page, the department's Telephone Calls page, the department's Adult Facilities page, the department's Parole and Probation page, the department's Parole Board page, the department's Facility Handbook of September 2024, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The four prisons and the women's center
The adult facilities page describes four prisons: the North Dakota State Penitentiary, established in Bismarck in 1885 as the original prison complex, holding men from maximum to minimum custody at 3100 Railroad Avenue, PO Box 5521, Bismarck, ND 58506-5521, (701) 328-6100; the James River Correctional Center, opened in 1998 on the State Hospital grounds in Jamestown for medium to minimum security men at 2521 Circle Drive, Jamestown, ND 58401, (701) 253-3660, with the James River Minimum Unit beside it; the Missouri River Correctional Center, four miles southwest of Bismarck, begun in the 1940s as the State Farm, for minimum low and community custody men at 1800 48th Avenue S.W., Bismarck, ND 58506, (701) 328-9696; and the Heart River Correctional Center, established in Mandan in 2021 for minimum security women at 701 16th Avenue Southwest, Mandan, ND 58554, (701) 667-1400.
The Dakota Women's Correctional and Rehabilitation Center at 440 McKenzie Street, New England, ND 58647, (701) 579-5100, takes the women's orientation, and the Bismarck Transition Center and Centre Inc. are the transitional facilities.
Mail: Tampa since June 1, 2021
The correspondence page says that since June 1, 2021 no facility accepts personal mail: a letter goes to the resident's name and number, care of Securus Digital Mail Center, North Dakota Department of Corrections, PO Box 21408, Tampa, FL 33622, with a return name and address on the envelope or it comes back, and is scanned to the resident's player, pictures and drawings included; a sender who wants the original back encloses a self addressed stamped envelope.
The facilities still take legal mail, mail from agencies such as child support, visitation applications, identification and documents needing a resident's signature when the Deputy Warden has approved them in advance through the case manager, certified mail only for such documents, and new publications sent directly from an approved publisher or vendor, at the facility addresses: the penitentiary's P.O. Box 5521, Bismarck 58506-5521 for residents at the penitentiary and Missouri River, 2521 Circle Drive, Jamestown 58401 for James River and its minimum unit, and 701 16th Avenue Southwest, Mandan 58554 for Heart River.
The commonly rejected items are more than 30 pictures in an envelope, more than ten pages of non personal material such as printouts or photocopies, and third party mail from anyone but the person on the return address, though children and people at the same address may add a letter; a rejection notice goes to the resident, who has seven days to appeal, and the facility handbook adds that the sender has thirty days to appeal in writing to the Warden, that mail with postage due at Tampa goes back, that certified, registered or insured mail needs a request to the property office, and that first class mail is forwarded for 90 days after a transfer or discharge.
The handbook's rejection criteria cover mail to or from a person under a no contact order, crime scene or autopsy photographs, coded mail, sexually explicit material as it defines it, security threat group symbols, uncancelled stamps, electronic media, unordered items, bill me later offers, photographs of staff or of residents taken inside, laminated cards and padded envelopes, pen pal solicitations and anything meant to disrupt the facility.
Email runs through Securus, where family buy stamps and send messages, photos and videograms that are screened before release, with no printout and no refund for a rejected message.
Money: JPay and nothing else
The sending money page states that money is not accepted in person or by mail at the penitentiary, Missouri River, James River, Heart River or the Bismarck Transition Center's work release unit, and the handbook adds that cash in the mail is held until release. Every deposit goes through JPay: the free mobile app, JPay.com, usually available the next business day, a live agent at 800-574-5729 taking a credit or debit card, cash at any MoneyGram counter, in every Walmart and CVS, with receive code 1304, or a money order with every box of the Money Order Deposit Form completed, payable to JPay, P.O.
Box 822700, Pembroke Pines, FL 33082, at no processing fee; an incomplete form sends the money order back. Inside, the money lands in a spending account with a monthly statement, checks of $100 or more may be held two weeks to clear, the warden may withdraw funds without a signature for fines, restitution, court appointed counsel, support and medical costs under N.D.C.C. 12-48-15, a quarter of facility earnings goes to a release aid account held until discharge, and a resident may send out money by transfer voucher only for court debts, bills, tuition or gifts of up to $100 a month to people on the visiting or telephone list. Care packages come through Access Securepak once orientation is finished.
Calls: 7.9 cents a minute to an approved list
The telephone page gives a new arrival two initial five minute calls at the penitentiary, after which every call is paid by the resident, who buys media time through the commissary, or by the approved caller through a Securus collect account at securustech.net or 1-800-844-6591, at 7.9 cents a minute. A family member or friend fills out and signs a telephone application, online or on paper mailed to Securus for the penitentiary, James River, Missouri River and Heart River or to the Dakota Women's center for its residents, and is verified by staff before activation; the handbook limits a resident to 20 active social numbers, changed every 90 days, 15 minutes a call, with attorney and clergy numbers outside the limit and calls to judges, courts, parole offices, agencies, businesses, media and law enforcement prohibited.
Staff take no messages and there is no voicemail line; a person who wants no calls presses option 6 during a call to block the number from that whole facility or calls the facility to be removed from one resident's list. All calls but attorney calls are monitored and recorded.
Visiting: the application, 20 hours a month and the schedules
Every visitor completes a visitation application, online or on a printed form mailed to the resident's facility, is checked with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, parole and probation and local law enforcement, and is placed on the resident's list before any visit; processing takes up to 15 business days, the resident is told the result and passes it on, and neither approval nor denial is given by phone. Anyone with open charges or a warrant is refused, anyone on parole or probation gets video visits only, a child under 18 comes with a parent or legal guardian or on a notarized minor visitation application approved by the facility, every visitor over 16 shows photo identification, and a resident may list family and 20 friends, with 20 hours of in person visits a month in which any visit over ten minutes counts as an hour and video visits do not count.
The dress code bars exposed shoulders, backs, stomachs and cleavage, sheer or tight clothing, shorts more than two inches above the knee, skirts above mid calf, pants with holes, sweatpants on anyone over 16, hats, gloves, scarves and coats, open toed shoes and Crocs, jewelry beyond one ring and a pair of stud earrings, and anything resembling the residents' white or grey T-shirts and khaki. The visitation page posts each schedule: the penitentiary on Tuesday to Friday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday adults only, Saturdays from 8:15 to 11:30 a.m. adults only and noon to 3:30 p.m. for all, and Sundays from 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with up to $20 in ones and quarters in a clear bag and photographs charged to the resident's account; James River on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Thursday adults only, and weekends with adults only from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and afternoons split by the resident's surname, A to L on Saturday and M to Z on Sunday, with photographs at $5 or three for $10; the James River Minimum Unit on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday evenings and holidays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.; Missouri River on Fridays from 6 to 8 p.m. and weekends from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with $10 in change; and Heart River on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Video visits, free at the penitentiary lobby and the James River front gate and paid when remote, are scheduled at least 24 hours ahead at videovisitanywhere.com by someone already on the list, with the penitentiary open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., James River to 8:30 p.m. and Missouri River to 10:30 p.m. Central time, two sessions of up to 20 minutes a day.
The Parole Board
The six member Parole Board, appointed by the Governor for three year terms, sits three at a time at monthly meetings, in 2026 on January 6 and 7, February 3 and 4, March 3 and 4, March 31 and April 1, May 5 and 6, June 2 and 3, June 30 and July 1, August 4 and 5, September 1 and 2, October 6 and 7, November 3 and 4 and December 1 and 2, and posts its results by month. Families and others may write to the Board by a deadline before each meeting, October 14, 2026 for the November board and November 10 for December, at North Dakota Parole Board, P.O.
Box 1898, Bismarck, ND 58502-1898, by fax at 701-328-6651 or by email to paroleclerk@nd.gov, with questions at 701-328-9726; victims correspond through Victim Services, which also answers at 701-328-6183 on blocking calls.
Reading a North Dakota result
A lookup result means the person is in a North Dakota facility now; no result can mean a county jail, release, parole, or a department sentence being served out of state, which the lookup does not show. The letter goes to Tampa with a return address, the money to JPay and never to the facility, the call to a number on the approved application at 7.9 cents a minute, and the visit after a 15 business day review within the 20 hour monthly budget.
Questions about finding an inmate in North Dakota
Related North Dakota records
The lookup is one of the North Dakota records this site covers: the North Dakota arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the courts' public search, the sex offender registry guide covers the Attorney General's registry, and the North Dakota county pages list each sheriff and jail.